A Study and Critique of Iqbal Lahori's Theological Method

Muslim thinkers have always defended religion in various ways. Iqbal Lahori is one of those thinkers who tried to revive and rebuild religion in the new era. This research tries to analyze Iqbal's theological method in defending religion in a descriptive-critical way. According to the findings of this study, Iqbal, in negative aspect of his theological system, considers the method of "Islamic philosophers" and "traditional Islamic theology" as being incomplete rather incorrect in defending religious teachings. The pure rationality and lack of excitement of these two field is the cause of this turn. In a positive way, Iqbal has tried to defend religion through "religious experience," which has a semantic affinity with "mystical intuition." He believes that only this method is suitable for defending religion, and this method is in accordance with the Qur'anic teachings and in line with the needs of today's human beings. This research, as being critical partly, has shown that Iqbal did not have a deep knowledge of Islamic heritage and his theological research method did not have the necessary power to defend religion